• Registered: 2019-09-29
  • Posts: 8

Topic: RME Fireface 400 daisy chained with Mackie Onyx 1640 by firewire

Hello,

My current setup is FF400 going into my Mac Mini which works flawlessly but the other day I noticed that my Mackie Onxy 1640 mixer has the optional firewire card installed which as 2 x 400 firewire ports.
In the manual of the FF400 it says that the ports can be used to interconnect multiple interfaces but with no further details. Will it work to use 1 port of the FF400 as an input from the Mackie mixer ?

I know I could use an aggregate device in my mac by connecting the mackie straight into it but I would want to avoid spending money on getting a firewire 400 to 800 adapter and a firewire 800 to usb-c adapter.
Has anyone had experience with this kind of routing?

Best,
Sergiu

  • vinark
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  • Registered: 2009-06-05
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Re: RME Fireface 400 daisy chained with Mackie Onyx 1640 by firewire

It is just FireWire, not audio, so what you hope for does not work. It will give FireWire  to your onyx probably, if there is enough bandwidth.

Vincent, Amsterdam
https://soundcloud.com/thesecretworld
BFpro fs, 2X HDSP9652 ADI-8AE, 2X HDSP9632
  • Registered: 2019-09-29
  • Posts: 8

Re: RME Fireface 400 daisy chained with Mackie Onyx 1640 by firewire

vinark wrote:

It is just FireWire, not audio, so what you hope for does not work. It will give FireWire  to your onyx probably, if there is enough bandwidth.

So my FF400 would not recognise the Mackie as an audio interface and have more outputs in my computer. I imagined it would be like adding up an ADAT interface ?

  • vinark
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Re: RME Fireface 400 daisy chained with Mackie Onyx 1640 by firewire

iamweith wrote:
vinark wrote:

It is just FireWire, not audio, so what you hope for does not work. It will give FireWire  to your onyx probably, if there is enough bandwidth.

So my FF400 would not recognise the Mackie as an audio interface and have more outputs in my computer. I imagined it would be like adding up an ADAT interface ?

No, just another audio interface to your computer. That would also be the case with another extra fireface, only the driver supports multiples, so your computer will see it as one.
Also agregate device will not work (well) cause the mackie has no digital in or out to use for syncing to the RME.
If you need extra inputs go for adat, even the behringer ADA8200 is decent.

Vincent, Amsterdam
https://soundcloud.com/thesecretworld
BFpro fs, 2X HDSP9652 ADI-8AE, 2X HDSP9632
  • Registered: 2019-09-29
  • Posts: 8

Re: RME Fireface 400 daisy chained with Mackie Onyx 1640 by firewire

vinark wrote:
iamweith wrote:
vinark wrote:

It is just FireWire, not audio, so what you hope for does not work. It will give FireWire  to your onyx probably, if there is enough bandwidth.

So my FF400 would not recognise the Mackie as an audio interface and have more outputs in my computer. I imagined it would be like adding up an ADAT interface ?

No, just another audio interface to your computer. That would also be the case with another extra fireface, only the driver supports multiples, so your computer will see it as one.
Aslo agregate device will not work (well) cause the mackie has no digital in or out to use for syncing to the RME.
If you need extra inputs go for adat, even the behringer ADA8200 is decent.

So in my computer i will have the FF400 ins and the mackie ins also? that's what i meant with my last post, the point is getting to have the mackie inputs in addition to the ff400 in the Mac.

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,783

Re: RME Fireface 400 daisy chained with Mackie Onyx 1640 by firewire

The FF can act as a Firewire hub (I tried it out with an old Mini DV video camera...), so it could also do so for another interface. But the FF 400 as such will not see or "recognize" the other interface and its I/O channels, there is no connection between the two by way of Firewire. The Mac will, and if there is no bandwidth problem, both can work together when combined into an Aggregate Device (external sync would be required, e.g. Word Clock).

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • vinark
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Re: RME Fireface 400 daisy chained with Mackie Onyx 1640 by firewire

RME Support wrote:

The FF can act as a Firewire hub (I tried it out with an old Mini DV video camera...), so it could also do so for another interface. But the FF 400 as such will not see or "recognize" the other interface and its I/O channels, there is no connection between the two by way of Firewire. The Mac will, and if there is no bandwidth problem, both can work together when combined into an Aggregate Device (external sync would be required, e.g. Word Clock).

It has no digital connections at all, nor wordclock.

Vincent, Amsterdam
https://soundcloud.com/thesecretworld
BFpro fs, 2X HDSP9652 ADI-8AE, 2X HDSP9632
  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,783

Re: RME Fireface 400 daisy chained with Mackie Onyx 1640 by firewire

Then this won't work...

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • cyrano
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  • Registered: 2015-04-28
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Re: RME Fireface 400 daisy chained with Mackie Onyx 1640 by firewire

iamweith wrote:

So my FF400 would not recognise the Mackie as an audio interface and have more outputs in my computer. I imagined it would be like adding up an ADAT interface ?

ADAT is "driverless". It's a very simple digital protocol that's always the same.

Connecting a Mackie Onyx 1640 by firewire will show up as a separate interface on the computer, not through the FF400, as ADAT would do.

There are very few mixers with ADAT ports.

It's easy enough to try an aggregate device, if you're on a Mac. It's a pity the 1640FW lacks sync options. And I seem to remember High Sierra being the most recent Macos for it's drivers?

MB Pro - 2 X FireFace 400, FF800 & DigiFace USB
ADAT gear: Korg, Behri, Fostex, Alesis...

cyrano's Website

  • Registered: 2019-09-29
  • Posts: 8

Re: RME Fireface 400 daisy chained with Mackie Onyx 1640 by firewire

Thanks everyone for the infos, it's been really helpful.
I will try some combinations of routing out and will report here my finds maybe they can be of use to someone since I haven't found anything about it on the web.